Panda Jump
Abstract
Our game is called Panda Jump, as what the name is, the main character is a Panda, which is controlled by players to move on the platform or jump onto the clouds. The theme of our game is Falling. After players win the game, the Panda will fall through all the clouds until it arrives at the floor. Players can play the game in no time limitation by clicking the buttons to play again. In total it has two levels. For each level, players need to control the Panda to jump onto the clouds to get 4 bamboos by touching them to win. After passing the first level, click on the “next level” button to get to the second level Panda Jump 2 which is an upgrade version of Panda Jump. Players need to jump onto One-piece clouds without touching them in this level. The instruction of the game will show on the screen after players start each level. The red arrows are the hint of directions that the Panda could move to. Double jump in the game is enabled, so players can enjoy using the keyboard to jump. Panda Jump is a game full of Chinese elements. Firstly, the giant panda is considered as the national treasure in China. The main character Panda is an animation of the real giant panda, it has the such as the black eyes, the black ears, the small black tail, and the white belly. Secondly, the color of our game is mainly black and white, which not only match the color of the Panda but also match our goal to make this game simple and enjoyable. Comparing to the black and white background, the green “bamboos”, red arrows and colorful texts are more obvious to players. In such a way, the instruction of the game is very clear to our audiences and it doesn’t destroy the simple style we want to build up. What’s more, the background music of Panda Jump is an adapted version of the “Super Mario”. This music mixed a lot of Chinese instrument like the ancient zheng, which is slower and beautiful. Also, we add sounds which will play when the Panda gets bamboo to attract players to get more bamboos until they win. The Core Mechanics of Panda Jump is clear. The Panda and its bamboos are nouns. Moving the Panda to the left or right and jumping or double-jumping onto the clouds to touch the bamboos are verbs. And the grammar is shown above which is the instructions. A complete game needs to be not that easy to win or lose, so we add some difficulties in the process of playing the game. For example, in each level of our game, when the Panda jump higher, the number of clouds is decreasing which means the top is the hardest to jump. Besides, according to the Blizzard Game Pillar, we design this game based on the fun of the game. We add small but clear texts to engage our audiences to have fun on it and understand the rules as fast as they see the text consisting of one or two sentences. We aim to let the players spend the shortest time to understand how to play this game, and have more time to enjoy playing the game and get the victory message. For example, when players control the Panda to touch the first bamboo in the first level and the “boom” animation begins to play, the “score” made of four empty bamboos under the cloud will be filled one showing with the rule message saying that “you need to get all four bamboos to win this game...”. We think it is better than just showing a text before starting the game since It helps the players to understand the “grammar” quickly when playing the game. Playing is the best way of learning. We were supposed to do a game about water, and our graphical game alpha is a outline that using a physical effect to make water dropping from the top. However, we change our topic and content in the process since we want to make a game that is innovative both in its style and on its goal. Since both of us are born in China and we are all familiar with Chinese culture, instead of making a game that is difficult and skillful, we are more willing to design a simple game full of details using things we are good at. As a result, we choose the Chinese style using many Chinese elements and make a game which is simple and clear. The action of our game is similar to Doodle Jump, a game controlling the character’s direction of jumping. Comparing to Doodle Jump, our game is using the four-way buttons on the keyboard to control the character, we can control it to jump or stay, also, double-jump is enabled in our game, so the character can move farther to get where they want. The most important thing is that not like Doodle Jump that only has sounds, our game has both sounds and background music. It is important since music is a great way to attract audiences. In the lab sections, we and other teams playtested each other’s games and we got a lot of feedback and ideas from them. We repaired a lot of bugs appearing in the process of playtesting, also, we add some instruction texts at the beginning and some arrows to guide the players. One of the teams gave the advice that we need to emphasize the theme word, so when passing each level, we set the Panda to fall through the clouds and get to the floor to call back our theme word “Falling”. At the end of our game, after victory message shows up, we add a button “play again” for players to play as much as they want. All the feedback are important to us and give us a lot of ideas to improve our game. I am so willing to accept other’s advice on our game since it is so helpful. And I have a lot of fun doing this project!